The violent street gang MS-13 is terrorizing a neighborhood seven miles from the White House, according to a Wednesday report in The Washington Post.

The gang has been linked to strings of murders in Boston, northern Virginia, Houston, and Long Island, where MS-13 has been tied to more than a dozen killings, the Post reported.

Most of the gang's victims are undocumented immigrants, not Americans, and they use extortion and intimidation to enforce their will.

"They are preying on the communities that they are living in," said Michael McElhenny, an FBI special agent in Maryland, according to the report.

Prince George's County Police Deputy Chief Sammy Patel said that the gang's "stranglehold" in Langley Park is broken. "We always target MS-13. They aren't running amok," he said, while acknowledging that the gang remains active.

Some of MS-13's threats include one women being told to pay or she would find her husband's body in a dumpster. Another was told to pay $1,500 or MS-13 would kill her children in Central America, the Post reported.

"People here live in fear," said Abigail Bautista. Two MS-13 members killed her son, according to court records.

"I wanted to help the police deal with these scoundrels," she said, and has returned to the neighborhood and helped build cases with state and federal officials against her son's alleged killers.

One of the alleged MS-13 leaders in Langley Park is a roofer; the Post is withholding his nickname because the FBI and the police say that residents are afraid of retaliation by the gang.

Bautista said she would not be satisfied until police arrest the person she suspects is the MS-13 leader in Langley Park.

According to the Post, after her son's killing, Bautista said she received a note that said, "If you keep talking, there will be consequences," signed by the roofer.

The new secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen M. Nielsen, said at a news conference on Dec. 12 that U.S. law enforcement is redoubling efforts to round up members of MS-13 and other violent gangs.